Cheteshwar Pujara and his limited overs mystery!

For most of the players entering the International Cricketing Arena the order of their first appearances begin with T20s which is then extended to ODIs and finally if proven worthy are handed a test cap for their national teams.  That has not been the case for the extremely talented Cheteshwar Pujara who is just 24 years old. While he made his test debut on 9^th October, 2010 against New Zealand, he is still waiting for his first Indian cap in limited overs cricket. This young talent has already one 150+ score and two 200+ scores under his belt in only 13 matches that he has played. Making a comeback after legendary Indian batsmen Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman declared their retirements. In such case coming in to fill in the shoes of such great batsman shouldn’t be easy. But Pujara has lived up to the expectations really well. He has established himself as a proper no. 3 in the format involving white kits and is proud to have an Indian crest on the left hand side of his chest. More often than hot Pujara finds himself being compared to the great Rahul Dravid himself. A similar batting style which involves reading the pitch first and then having a go or let it be his knack to first let the ball hit the ground first makes him an obstinate occupier of the crease just like Dravid.
A strong defence and sound technique are no doubt Pujara’s main strengths. But having watched him closely I have a feeling that he can batter the opposition’s bowling attack once he is set. He has that attacking temperament in him. But he lets it out only when he is sure that he is ready to go. Probably another trait matching with The Wall himself. Isn’t it? Even Rahul Dravid in the beginning was criticized for the slow pace of his innings and was branded as not an ODI material. But how good did he turn out to be? It won’t be wrong to say that he is the most dependable batsman India has ever produced. And the same goes on with Pujara. Though sluggish in the initial part of his innings, he can turn the heat on the opposition’s bowling attack. All its needed is some amount of faith and persistence by the selectors on this young man.
Then what should be done?
I think here the responsibility of Dhoni creeps in. Captain Cool has a reputation of getting the best out of his players. We saw Jadeja conceding more than he generally does in the tri series in the absence of Dhoni. And as soon as Dhoni was back in the finals so was Sir Jadeja. Jadeja took just 4 wickets in the whole tournament before the final, but claimed 4 in the final itself thus taking the number of wickets to 8 in the tournament. Erratic Ishant has certainly got his knack of taking wickets back, Umesh Yadav has been better in his proceedings and above all Dhoni has been able to extract the class out of Rohit Sharma. Rohit Sharma, though extremely talented had not shown any kind of resolve before the champions trophy. Dhoni asked Rohit to open and take his time and what we got is a brilliantly performing Rohit whose runs speak it all about the quality of batsman he is. That is the effect Dhoni has on his young players.
Its truly said that a captain can make or break players. Dhoni has found Indian Cricket so many stars who are exciting prospects for the future. Cheteshwar Pujara is one of them. If you take a look at his list A career you would definitely feel that he can excel in limited overs cricket. You can’t expect the whole batting line up in the shorter formats to be pinch hitters. You need someone to stand in there throughout. The concept is also the same for T20s. There must be someone to anchor the innings on one side while others can go after the bowling. Cheteshwar Pujara is definitely contending for that spot in the Indian line up. And to add to that it would also bring the best out of Kohli who comes in at no.3 for India in the shorter formats. If the opening pair fails to build a partnership in the beginning the next man to come in is always Kohli. There is no guarantee that he would fire every time which would leave the Indian batting card reeling in case Kohli departs.  Someone like Pujara can guard such a precarious situation and Kohli could play his natural game.

Career Statistics for Cheteshwar Pujara.

But the problem is where to fit Pujara in the team? In my view Dinesh Kartik can be replaced with Pujara and we can try him out. Dinesh Kartik has not been very consistent coming from Champions trophy to the Caribbean tri series. 4 out of 5 times he fell prey to spin, clearly indicating his failure to read the conditions. So that change can be brought in the squad. I am pretty sure Pujara will do well. But all that comes later. The first step has to be taken by Pujara himself. It’s pretty sure that he will find his place in the playing 11 in the Zimbabwe tour. He will have to make sure that he builds on that, play some good knocks and make his presence felt. After all, even Dravid was branded as not so fit for ODIs in the initial part of his career, 15 years later he was India’s most dependable batsman. Pujara can learn from that and keep working hard.